Genesis 1:26 - Man to rule over all the animals....

[liberal N proud]

Genesis 1:26 New International Version
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, < Hebrew; Syriac all the wild animals > and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

I guess if you take this translation literally then RULE would be to rape and destroy.

What do these people think they are doing, destroying the last great wilderness. They can not all them selves the part of faith with moves like this.
We need to use their faith against them. Every-time they go against Christian principles for which they proclaim at election time, we need to hit them and hit them hard on it.
EVERY TIME.

[K-W]

1. It doesnt say "rule well" EOM

[dbonds]

2. Rule should mean sovereignty

As you are in service to them. You are responsible for their health and well being.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. You are responsible for their health and well being.

Well said... very very well said. What we are doing to the environment, and especially the creatures that are adversly affected by it, (meaning the ones that are dying off) is a terrible and unforgivable ecocrime.

[El Supremo]

4. The King James Version says "have dominion over."

And I have always interpreted that as not only meaning ownership but also husbandry.

2 : the control or judicious use of resources : CONSERVATION
3 a : the cultivation or production of plants and animals : AGRICULTURE b : the scientific control and management of a branch of farming and especially of domestic animals

[DenverDem]

5. It should read "be stewards of" the other species.

If a Prime Creator bases his ethical system on agape love, he doesn't mean raping and destroying other species and the environment for short term profit like the christofacists are intent on.

[JohnLocke]

14. I second the above (nt).

[Inland]

6. Nobody said anything about cats.

[shraby]

7. Could someone enlighten me?

This sentence uses the word "our" when God is talking. Does that mean more than one God or what?

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, < Hebrew; Syriac all the wild animals > and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

[meow2u3]

8. I think it meant the power to tame animals

In a perfect world, humans would be able to tame the wildest of animals. Imagine having a pet tiger--a 600-lb lap cat, or a pet wolf, or even a pet croc, all who come when they're called, ask to be petted. That would be in a perfect world

[megatherium]

12. I think originally the Jewish religion didn't believe in one God,

but instead believed they were only to worship their own (single) God. (The technical term is "henotheism": the worship of one god without denying the existence of other gods.)

But I think something else is going on here. What we read in Genesis was not originally a Hebrew creation myth; it was Sumerian, much older. Except the original version was polytheistic. The people who edited/rewrote it for use by the monotheistic (or henotheistic) Hebrews didn't quite manage to remove the polytheistic language. Nowadays, of course, only (some) evangelical Christians take the Genesis stories literally, most Christians understand them as poetry. But whoever rewrote the original myth was making a careful point: God is the creator and only God is to be worshiped, not the creation. Thus the sun and moon are referred to as the greater and lesser lights in the sky -- their proper names being carefully avoided since these were the names of near-Eastern gods. So Genesis is a catechism: it describes the God we are to worship -- a God who created humans because it was good to do so, as well as nature, a God who expects moral/ethical behavior of his creatures. Not the quarrelsome, petty gods of the neighboring polytheistic religions.

See Freedman, Who Wrote the Bible (a fine book if you can find it).

[msongs]

9. creationism run amok once again...:-) eom

Msongs
www.msongs.com/political-shirts.htm

[New Earth]

10. i will hope they intended 'care for', not 'rule'

x(

[Cleita]

11. The version I got was that man was given 'dominion'

over all the creatures of the earth. The way the nuns taught us was that it meant we were responsible for the welfare of all the creatures, a responsibility, like raising kids, not a license to exploit them.

[achtung_circus]

13. Proverbs 12:10

The righteous man regardeth his flock, but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.

[havocmom]

15. My dog says Genesis is all wrong

and not to buy into it. He says it was written and oft-translated by humans in order to further the human agenda of planetary domination.

Who am I to argue when the dog makes that kind of astute observation?

[evolvenow]

16. Man's worst inventions=The Gun, The Car, The Bible or and WAR!! MEAN MEN!

May everyone become a vegetarian and not kill any people...then we could take all of this creative brilliance and make outstanding strides...sustainable.

Animals need our protection form these Bastards.

[Squeech]

17. Yeah, that works

We rule.

Over all creation.

Because we have the One Ring.

Praise Jesus, yesss, my precioussssss.

[kiraboo]

18. The kid next door used to capture and mutilate insects, fish, worms etc.

My young daughter told him that he was being cruel and that these were living things... His response was that his parents had told him his actions were okay because man has dominion over all the creatures of the earth. These folks were fundie Catholics. They actually came over and interviewed us as prospective neighbors before they bought the house. Odd people.